Fields of Faith: Overcoming adversity through Christ

On a windy evening at venerable Houck Stadium on the Cape Girardeau campus of Southeast Missouri State University, a COVID-impacted crowd of 250 gathered for the annual Fields of Faith event Wednesday, sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).

Crowden’s path

Jackson High School senior Grace Crowden talked of difficult days for her as an athlete.

“I tore the ACL in my knee sophomore year and missed the season,” said Crowden, who told the crowd she will be on scholarship to play soccer at Southeast.

“Two weeks before my first game as a junior, I was released to play again — and then COVID wiped out that season,” she said.

Jackson High School soccer player Grace Crowden makes a testimony at Houck Stadium during the Fields of Faith event Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

“I felt God really let me down — and I was running a sprint in my mind trying to get back to my love, to soccer,” Crowden said.

“I felt really lonely, questioning my faith, asking ‘Why is God doing this?’” she said.

“Finally,” Crowden said, “I gave my life to Him and told God it was all up to Him.

“I felt God was telling me to slow down, to find the pace of grace,” she said.

“The teacher is always silent during the test but God is still there,” Crowden concluded.

Wallen’s heartbreak

Southeast sophomore softball outfielder Kimmy Wallen had a similar story, also tearing an ACL during high school.

The daughter of a youth pastor, “saved at a young age,” Wallen told of leading a girls’ Bible study Tuesday mornings.

“I asked the Lord why He was doing this to me — because I was doing His work, so why?” Wallen asked rhetorically.

The Park Hills Central graduate said she also discovered, a week before high school graduation, that her grandfather had lung cancer.

“I was mad at God all over again,” said Wallen, who also mentioned she broke up with a three-year boyfriend at around the same time.

Leaning on the words of Romans 5:8: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Wallen told attendees that if they feel lost to be comforted.

“The Lord,” she said, “wants to transform your heart.”

Douglas’ struggle

Southeast senior football player Omardrick Douglas of Louisville, Kentucky, told of suffering bouts of depression and anxiety during his freshman year at the university, the first time he said he’d ever been away from home.

“I was on the 10th floor of Towers South (dormitory) and the room got cold,” Douglas, an outside linebacker for the Redhawks, recalled.

“This was the day I decided to get out of the driver’s seat of my life and into the passenger seat,” he said.

Omardrick assured attendees of a personal conviction.

“Jesus loves you for you — you don’t have to be anyone else.”

Notes

• Keynote speaker was former Southeast fullback Nick Grassi of Jackson, who works with Project 200, a Christian men’s discipleship organization.
• Redhawks head football coach Tom Matukewicz attended the event with his wife, Lenna.

“Young people pick me up,” said Coach Tuke, adding that events such as Fields of Faith “get my heart right and get me ready for tomorrow.”

• Saxony Lutheran student Maddox Murphy set the tone early, greeting attendees with an acknowledgment of the ongoing global pandemic.
• The crowd was markedly smaller than in 2019, when an estimated 700 people gathered for the event.
• Some of those gathered for Fields of Faith were masked; others were not.
• Social distancing was largely not observed despite FCA’s request to maintain health protocols.